


The Last of Worm

by Slider (TemporalKnight)



Category: Parahumans Series - Wildbow, The Last of Us
Genre: Cynical Taylor, Depowered Taylor, F/F, F/M, Optimistic Emma, Survivor Sophia, The Last of Us AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-29
Updated: 2020-10-15
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:41:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24973993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TemporalKnight/pseuds/Slider
Summary: The Simurgh saw the future and decided she did not want Taylor around to mess up the Cycle, so she got rid of her. Now Taylor, Emma, Sophia, and Madison are trapped in a world where civilization has crumbled and beset by mutant fungus zombies on all sides. Making things even worse, neither Taylor nor Sophia's powers are working. They will have to learn how to survive in this new world, while desperately hoping for a path home.
Relationships: Emma Barnes/Taylor Hebert | Skitter | Weaver
Comments: 5
Kudos: 78





	1. Exploration 01

_"That kid could save the world!"  
"Over. My. Dead. Body"_  
  
**The Last of Worm**

**Exploration 01**  
  
"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, _FUCK_!" I shouted as we ran towards the door out of the school.  
  
"Please stop saying that!" Madison whimpered, her hands over her head as she followed on my heels. Emma was practically being dragged by Shadow Stalker; my ex-best friend was not remotely suited to running. Bully for her. An Endbringer attack was the _perfect_ time to practice one's cardio.  
  
"Skitter! Where is she?" Shadow Stalker demanded.  
  
" _Right over us_!" I yelled back. "Come on, the front doors are this way!"  
  
"I know where the fucking doors to the school are!"  
  
"How the fuck do you know that? Don't you go to Arcadia?"  
  
"Less talking bitch, more running!"  
  
Another boom rang out as Legend hit the Simurgh with _something_. It retaliated, tossing another piece of debris towards him. "Down!" I screamed, throwing my arms out to stop the others as her shot went wide and crashed through the roof in front of us.  
  
"Why did she throw you both here? Why didn't we get any warning? Why is this _happening_?!" Emma sobbed. She clung onto Shadow Stalker's arm like a drowning girl. I almost felt bad for her - at least before the screaming in my head picked up again.  
  
"I didn't get _thrown_ here Red," Stalker snapped. "I lost my damn footing on the fucking piece of rock."  
  
"That we were both on and that the Simurgh threw," I said. "The bitch threw us here. Get over it. I don't know or care why these two shits were here, but it doesn't matter. If the Simurgh wanted us in the school we need to get _out_."  
  
"No shit." Stalker paused then nodded. "Gym. There's a side entrance in the gym."  
  
"Let's just use one of the windows? Why can't we use one of the windows?" Madison asked, tears streaming down her face.  
  
I shook my head. "Most of the windows are blocked by debris. So are the emergency exits. The gym exit is closer."  
  
Stalker scowled. "She's _herding_ us. Can you contact the other fighters? My armband is dead."  
  
"So's mine. Stay or go? I can track her from here, but…"  
  
"Yeah, I don't like this either. I say we make a run for it. I'm not dying like a trapped rat."  
  
I nodded and took off again towards the gym, Stalker on my heels. Madison and Emma following behind us. Thankfully, we managed to make it to the side entrance without further problems. I held up my hand as we clustered at the exit.  
  
"What the hell are you stopping for, Skitter? We need to get back into the fight. Red and Hairclips can get to the closest shelter on their own from here. We can't babysit them back when the fucking Endbringer is right outside!"  
  
I shook my head. "Shelter will never let them in. But that's not why I'm stopping. She's outside dueling with Eidolon, a piece of Tinkertech is in the air behind her. It's pointed at the door."  
  
"Oh god…" Emma moaned.  
  
"We'll go once someone knocks it out of the way. Eidolon is charging something up. Get ready. On my signal…NOW!"  
  
The four of us lunged, smashing the doors open and surging into the parking lot. As soon as we cleared the threshold, Eidolon's blast smashed into the circular halo at the back of the Simurgh's device. I froze in horror as her face split into a grin, the thing lit up blue and green, and it flipped around, the barrel end pointing directly at me.  
  
She casually dodged another laser from Legend and swatted Alexandria out of the air with a negligent backhand. Then the backhand turned into a small wave directed at us, and her smile widened further. The gun discharged, a circular hole tearing out from the end and surging towards us. Madison moaned, Emma sobbed, Stalker snarled.  
  
I could only stare at the grass overgrowing the buildings on the other side as the portal engulfed us.

* * *

"Are you seriously going to just sit there staring into the sky for forever?" Emma asked, sighing. She had gotten some of her haughtiness back. Such fun. "It's been three hours. They're not going to open whatever fucking door sent us here so _let's go_."  
  
"Go _where_?" Madison asked. She was sitting next to me, her knees pulled up to her chest and her arms wrapped around them. At least she had stopped crying. "Where are we supposed to go Emma? _Where_?! Everything is dead!"  
  
"Technically everything is alive," Stalker muttered. "Just not the _people_. Fuck this. Skitter, get your ass up. We need to find a place to bunk down. It's going to be dark soon."  
  
I didn't move. I couldn't move. I could only keep staring at the street in front of us. The empty street in front of us. The empty street where there had been a portal that swallowed the world.  
  
"Skitter, let's fucking _go_. I'm not happy about working with a villain, but if we're the only four people alive in this city then I'll take what I can get. What do your bugs tell you? Obviously we haven't disturbed anyone yet, but I don't trust that to last. What do you see?"  
  
"Nothing," I whispered.  
  
Stalker grunted. "Perfect. The flying bitch sent us to an empty world. I never actually _wished_ I was a tinker before, but god right now I'd give my fucking arm to have Kid Win trapped here with us."  
  
"They're gone," I whispered.  
  
Emma snorted. I didn't have to look at her to know she was rolling her eyes. "Yes, we've established that. Now can we _go_?"  
  
"No…I mean…they're _gone_. The bugs."  
  
Madison glanced at me. "Even the _bugs_ have died? Oh god. Oh god, oh god, what if it's a virus? What if we're already infected?!"  
  
I held out my hand, a bumblebee perched atop it. "I can't feel it…It's _all gone_!" I said. My voice may have raised a few octaves by the last word, but I really couldn't bring myself to care. I could only stare helplessly at the empty street and the stubbornly independent bee.  
  
Stalker froze as she stared at my hand. Her eyes slowly raised to look at me. "All of them?"  
  
I just nodded. I hadn't been forced to deal completely with my own emotions for months and not being able to offload a portion of the despair and futility into my swarm was close to bringing me to tears.  
  
Stalker shut her eyes, and a moment later they opened so wide I had a brief instant where I thought they would pop out of her skull. She stumbled backwards, raising her hands in front of her face and just staring at them. Then she started cursing and raging. It was actually impressive some of the words that she knew. Dad would've loved it. She could probably teach him a few new ones actually.  
  
Oh god, we were so very, very screwed.

* * *

We had managed to get into the local version of Winslow. It was easy with parts of it rotted away into nothing. It had been harder finding the drama room and finding enough cloth that wasn't rotten so that we could form makeshift sleeping pads.  
  
I had just sat down on mine when I groaned and looked to Stalker. She had stretched out on her bed of old clothes as well. We stared at each other and both cursed at the same time.  
  
"What? What's wrong?" Emma asked, looking between us.  
  
"They can't sleep with their masks on," Madison said. She grimaced. "I um…I know that Emma and I aren't exactly part of the cape scene, but I promise I'll be quiet about who you are if you, er, you know…"  
  
Stalker shook her head. "I'm not demasking to a fucking villain."  
  
I scowled. "I think we have bigger concerns over hero and villain right now, Stalker. Besides, it's honestly not _you_ I'm leery of unmasking to."  
  
Madison frowned. "Wait? _Me_? Why? I mean, yeah I write risque fanfiction but…"  
  
"We can wait until the Protectorate gets us back."  
  
"No, we can't." I sighed. "If they were going to get us back they would have done it by now. No one knows how the Simurgh does what she does. We have to find our own tinker on this side or figure out some other way back. We can't stay masked the entire fucking time. As much as I wish we _could_ , we just _can't_. We're going to be here for weeks at minimum, but more likely months or years if everywhere is as dead as this place."  
  
"Motherfucking sonofabitch," Stalker spat. She looked up and glared at me. "You're supposed to be unhinged, not fucking _reasonable_."  
  
"Funny, I remember hearing the same thing about a certain ex-vigilante."  
  
She just glared.  
  
Emma shuddered and wrapped her arms around herself. "Um, if we're all going to be stuck together for…weeks, can we at least _try_ to get along? Please? I don't…I don't want to be alone…"  
  
"Man up Emma," Stalker said, her eyes never leaving me. "On three?"  
  
"Whatever makes you feel better, Princess," I responded, rolling my eyes and reaching up to grab the attachments for my helmet.  
  
"One. Two. Three."  
  
Dead silence filled the room as we all just stared at each other.  
  
Then someone started to laugh.  
  
By the time I realized it was me, I had nearly passed out from lack of air.  
  
It was official, even the Simurgh personally hated me.


	2. Exploration 02

_“So…mutant fungus. I didn’t expect that.”  
“What were you expecting? Ponies and rainbows? The Simurgh dropped us off, of course we get mutant fungus zombies.”  
“…Good point. But I don’t think I’ll ever be able to eat mushrooms again.”_  
  
 **Exploration 02**  
  
“What are you doing, dweeb?”  
  
“You realize that’s not actually going to get a rise out of me anymore right, Sophia?” I asked. Holding the sneaker up to my foot, I nodded once and sat down to slip them on. “Finally. I can’t believe it took three days to find a goddamn shoe store.”  
  
“Taylor, are you good? Can we please go now, this place is giving me the creeps and I really don’t want to stay here any more.”  
  
Sophia nearly growled as she turned to the short brunette standing by the door. “Madison, I swear to god, if you don’t stop whining soon I will leave your fucking ass.”  
  
“Sophia, as far as we’ve been able to tell, we are the last four people alive in this entire fucking _world_. Can you _please_ be a _little_ less of a _bitch_ ,” I snarled. “Yes, I’m done, Madison. My costume may be mostly knife-proof, but it’s not designed for long distance walking.” I looked around warily, “I don’t like this place either. Emma! We’re leaving!”  
  
“I’m here!” Emma huffed as she ran back down the stairs, her hands on her knees. Jeez, had she ever worked out a day in her life? Getting her breath back, she stood up straight and held up a bottle of water, a large grin on her face. “Found some Dasani!”  
  
“Took you long enough,” Sophia grunted. She strode forward and swiped the bottle from Emma taking a large swig before handing it to me. I just rolled my eyes and took a sip myself, passing it back to Emma. She gave me a hesitant smile, taking her own drink and handing the remainder of the bottle to Madison as we moved out of the store. The brunette nearly shrieked as I touched her shoulder to get her to move out of the doorway.  
  
“Madison, what has you so jumpy?” I asked, scanning the street. I missed my bugs so much…Not having the instinctive sense of everything around me was like losing an arm or a leg - and that parallel was disturbingly close to how crippled I felt.  
  
“I thought I saw something moving in that building,” she murmured, her eyes wide and focused on the large window of the bookstore across the street.  
  
Frowning, I narrowed my gaze. “Sophia?”  
  
“I don’t see anything. Pretty dark in there though. Check it out?”  
  
“Well nothing else has been alive except a few animals in the woods…Do you think it could be a survivor?”  
  
She bit her tongue, slowly shaking her head. “It’s possible, but why hide in a bookstore? Maybe an animal?”  
  
Madison hugged her arms around herself. “Maybe it’s whatever killed all of those people we found.”  
  
Emma gagged and clutched at her shirt, whipping her head back and forth. “Mads, their bones had _bite marks_ , like fucking _zombies_ ate them!”  
  
“Could’ve just been an animal,” I said.  
  
“And then they were shot in the head?”  
  
“Maybe they were killed first and then something tried to eat them?”  
  
“Then someone still executed a lot of people,” Sophia said. “Either way, they’re dead and we’re not. Taylor, I’ll take point. We should find out what we’re dealing with. Fair warning, if we have to run and you fall behind, I’m leaving you.”  
  
“Says the fucking track star,” I muttered. “Emma, Madison, stay here. We’ll be back in a minute.”  
  
Emma clutched at her arm as she moved next to Madison. “What do we do if you both don’t come back?”  
  
I shrugged. “Survive. It’s really not that complicated, Emma.”  
  
“But - ”  
  
“Let’s go, Sophia,” I said, cutting her off. Nodding towards the building, I started off along with my nemesis. Flicking out my baton I grunted. “Really wish we had more than four bullets.”  
  
“Still haven’t seen anything alive yet; might not need them,” Sophia murmured. She dropped into a crouch as we approached the door. “On three…one, two…” She stopped speaking as she eased the door open and slipped inside. I followed right after her, making sure that my collar was back up on my costume. It wouldn’t stop bullet’s and my mask limited my vision too much, but this would protect my neck at least.  
  
The main room of the bookstore was dark and the smell of the books was overpowering. It seemed like they were rotting. I nearly cried as I saw the hole in the ceiling and the water dripping down on a stack of books. My mother would’ve had a conniption.  
  
My heart seized up for an instant at that thought, but I gritted my teeth and followed in Sophia’s wake, pushing the memory of my mom down. Now was not the time or the place.  
  
Sophia held up her hand in a fist and I halted as well, my head swiveling to the stairs. I had heard the weird clicking noise too as well as grunts and moans. This was such a bad idea. Maybe Madison had been right and the Simurgh had sent us to a zombie world. Did zombies click though? It didn’t sound like that was teeth snapping that was making that horrible parody of a noise.  
  
We edged around a shelf and I had to jam my hand into my mouth as the sight around the corner came into view. There were three people. Two of them had reddish eyes and were wandering back and forth near the back of the store, occasionally passing in front of the window nearby. The third…the third didn’t even look human except for in the vaguest of terms. Her head had been replaced by what looked like several overlapping plates of some sort of orange growth. No…not _replaced_ , supplanted. Whatever the orange thing was, it was _growing out of her skull_.  
  
“ _Jesus fuck_ , what the hell is that?” Sophia whispered, her hand frozen as it gripped the side of the bookshelf we were crouched next to.  
  
The two - mostly - normal people continued on their unknowing patrol, but the mutated one…Sophia’s whisper had it snapping its head towards us. My eyes widened as it leaned forward, arms held back behind it and that horrible clicking issued forth from it. There was a delay of about a second, during which Sophia and I both froze solid. It didn’t matter, the thing _screeched_ and started flailing as it surged towards us. The two others snapped their heads our way as well and yelled a wordless cry of rage as they ran our direction as well.  
  
I stumbled backwards, turning towards the door of the store, Sophia hot on my heels. We burst through, and I turned to try and slam the door closed. “Emma, Madison! Get something to wedge into this thing! Now!”  
  
“Too late! Hebert, get back!” Sophia shouted, I felt the door buck into me and I was thrown to the side, the two quick ones bursting out of the store. One looked at Sophia and yelled, running her way while the second fell on me. Thankfully I still had my baton free and I was able to get a good smack into the side of his head. It barely seemed to phase him as he just pulled back, snarled and lunged towards me again. I rolled, barely avoiding the man and scrambled to my feet as the mutated thing ran out of the store as well. Madison screamed, falling onto her butt as she tried to backpedal away.  
  
The thing twisted its body to focus on her and started flailing her way, only to turn back towards me as I grunted, finally getting my feet under me and starting to run. It screeched, the clicks ringing in my ears as I ran and it followed. The grunts and cries from the red-eyed man weren’t far behind either, but at least I was faster than both.  
  
The clicker thing wasn’t as quick as the man, thank god. I stopped as I got halfway across the street, centering my stance and as the man got close enough, I lashed out. This time, my strike caved in a portion of his skull and he went down for good. I set myself again as the mutated one got closer.  
  
Then Sophia cried out, the metal pipe she had found yesterday making a resounding crack as it connected with the side of the crazy woman’s head. The body hit the ground and the mutated thing turned to Sophia again - even though I was _right_ in front of it. “What the fuck?” I muttered. It snapped back to me. “Sound. Sound! Guys, it’s attracted to sound! Make noise and I’ll get behind and kill it!”  
  
Emma and Madison just stared at me, eyes wide, Madison still on the ground and Emma frozen in front of her. Sophia however, was quicker on the draw; she started shouting and yelling and beating her pipe on the ground. The clicking thing twisted back to her, screeching again as it leaned forward. It started to move in its shambling run towards Sophia. I tightened my grip on my baton and slipped off my new shoes, leaving me in the _far_ quieter soles of my costume instead. Taking quick lunging strides, I was behind the thing just fast enough to smash the side of its head with my baton. Several pieces of the orange plates broke off and it screeched, its arms flailing. I fell back and Sophia jumped forward, striking with her pole. The creature screeched again and fell to the ground. Sophia and I both wailed on it, and in only a few more hits all was still again on the street except for our heavy breathing.  
  
I collapsed to a sitting position as I stared at the monstrous _thing_ , my eyes wide and my arms going numb.  
  
“What. The. _Fuck_!” Sophia spat, falling down next to me.  
  
For once, I fully agreed with her in every way, shape and form.  
  
Fuck the Simurgh, fuck Sophia, fuck this world, fuck my life. This whole world was fucked.


	3. Determination 01

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: So my beta, GreyRaven has successfully convinced me that while I might badly want to jump straight into this and mostly hint at the other parts, that isn't quite as ultimately satisfying. So I expect I'll be jumping between Determination and Exploration from here in more or less alternating chapters.

**Determination 01**

"Happy birthday, Taylor." Emma was quieter than she'd been in a long time as she set a small cake in front of me on the broken table. Her smile was small and she was skittish, almost as if she was waiting for me to…lash out? No, I hadn't snapped at her in months. Then what was she scared of?

The cake was still sitting on the table and some part of me finally cottoned on that I had just been staring at her. I tried to smile back and reached out to take her hand. "This is awesome, Emma. Thank you." Where my abortive attempt at a smile had failed, apparently my words were more successful; Emma squeezed my hand and moved to stand behind me, leaning down enough to wrap her arms around my neck.

"You like it? I've been trying to find the right ingredients for weeks. I only just barely managed to find icing the other day when we swung by Boston."

I looked back at the cake. "Oh. That was why you asked to detour…"

"Yeah," she said. "I tried to get Mads on the radio so we could sing too, but I don't think the weather is good right now. I couldn't reach her."

"She is in Salt Lake, the ham almost never gets a good connection to her." I turned to frown at Emma. "How did you know it was my birthday? _I_ didn't know it was my birthday. The days aren't exactly…Things have kind of run together."

"You think I'd forget your 19th?" She teased, kissing my cheek. I just continued staring at her. Rolling her eyes, Emma inclined her head towards the journal on the counter. "That has a calendar in the back. I added the extra two years when it ran out. I have no idea when leap years are supposed to be so I'm probably off by like a day or two, but it's close enough."

"Oh. That's…Wow, that's really sweet, Ems."

"Thanks. Now stop stalling and try it! I hope it came out good." I just nodded and grabbed for the fork.

The cake _was_ very good. Almost good enough to make me not think of the ones back home.

* * *

I stretched, my neck popping and a grumble of annoyance slipping out.

"I keep telling you need to take better care of yourself, Taylor," Emma murmured, her hands massaging my neck a moment later.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. It's not my fault, I'm only 18-err, 19. I shouldn't be this stiff."

"You're also crouching to a truly absurd degree. Clearing homes doesn't require _that_ much bending and duck walking."

I just shook my head and pulled away from her to get into Brutus' saddle. "Maybe if you'd ever gotten to a point where I felt comfortable with you behind me clearing those homes I wouldn't have to be so careful." Emma's face fell and I could almost see the good cheer of the morning blow away on the wind. Biting my tongue hard enough to taste blood I shook my head and held out my hand. "I'm sorry, that was mean, and I didn't mean it like that."

"I know…" Emma murmured as she grabbed my arm and swung herself up into the saddle behind me. She clutched my waist and leaned her head against my back. "I know that I'm useless in this place. I'm…sorry…"

"You're not useless, Ems," I said. Kicking Brutus into a light trot, I tried to figure out the right words. I used to talk so much when we were kids, but then she had - _no_. No, don't go there. Don't think about the Bad Times. _Don't_.

I let out a soft breath and recentered. What would Lisa say? Lisa was always good with people. My eyes widened and I grinned. "I suck with people, Ems. How the heck would I survive without you if I had to be the one to deal with the assholes and the psychos in the QZs hmm?"

She groaned. "Not all of the people in the Quarantine Zones are assholes, Taylor. How many times do I have to tell you that?"

"They are. They're government sponsored bullies. Except that these bullies can legally kill the people who piss them off. And there's not really a government anymore. And there's not too many of the QZs left anyway…"

"They're really not that bad. They're just trying to make the best of a shitty situation."

"I'll grant you, they are better than the fucking _bastards_ that Sophia ran off with. Not that that is a high bar."

I could feel Emma wince without even needing to see her face. She tightened her grip around my stomach. "I wish I could understand why she thought they were…better than us. We were doing well together."

"Emma, Sophia's a - " I cut myself off before I could complete my original thought. Once upon a time I had actually believed that Sophia was a psychopath, but now, now I could almost understand her. And wasn't that horrifying? "She's a survivor. She joined the people that she thought had the best chance of making it through."

"We were doing fine, just the four of us."

"For a little while." Today was supposed to be a happy day, I wasn't going to ruin it for her. She didn't need to be reminded about how Sophia had never wanted to stay with the group once she'd realized how badly underprepared Emma and Madison had been.

There was a sort of delicious irony in Sophia only sticking around as long as she had because of me.

"So, um, where are we going now?"

"Heard about a new possibility near Wyoming."

"Okay."

"This is different from the others. Rumors said that this was a hole in the sky. Not a rainbow. It's different."

"Okay."

It was different. It was a chance.

* * *

We had only ridden for about two hours before nearby gunshots had me slowing Brutus' pace. Scowling I scanned the horizon. "It's by the capital. We should go around."

Emma frowned. "Why are there people this far out from the QZ? They're too close for it to be coincidence, but too far to be safe. Maybe they need help?"

"Maybe they're looters. Emma, come on, it's going to take us about 5 months to get to Wyoming, we can't stop for everything or the lead will go dead by the time we get there."

Emma shook her head. "Please, Taylor? We're too close to QZ. These aren't those psychos. We can at least get close enough to _check_ , can't we?"

I groaned and dug my heels into Brutus' flanks. "Fine, fine, we can _see_. But I'm not making any promises. Deal?"

"Deal. I owe you for this."

"That you do, Ems."

Thankfully, the capital was close and we didn't need to travel far before we reached it. We came out in an alley next to the building and I dropped off our horse scowling out at the street around the corner. "Those are military vehicles - FEDRA. What the hell is FEDRA doing out here? And who killed most of them?"

Emma slipped down next to me and held up a hand to point at several of the bodies I hadn't noticed. "Runners and clickers. Maybe you were right, maybe we should just leave."

"Yeah, I'm not liking this." The way those infected were arrayed compared to the soldiers…"Someone led those things out there. Wait…Emma do you see that body in the door? I can't make it out, but I think that's a different uniform."

"I keep telling you, we need to find you new glasses," Emma muttered. "Yeah, that's a Firefly."

"Oh _perfect_. We walked into a damn shootout between them both. Time to go."

Emma just swallowed hard and nodded. I had one foot in the stirrup when another shout rang out from the building next to us, drifting through the nearby window. Emma paled at that voice. "Taylor, wait."

"No, it's time to go."

"That's _Tess_. Taylor…"

"Motherfucker," I spat, letting my foot drop back to the ground. "Your smuggler friend?"

Emma nodded, her eyes wide. "More like a business partner, but yes."

" _Fuck_." I peeked around the corner again, none of the bodies had moved from their eternal rest. A choked sob - distinctly more high pitched than Tess' tones - floated through the window and I snarled as I drew my gun. " _Stay here_."

"Okay."

"If anyone comes around that corner that is not me or your business partner, you shoot them. Got it, Emma?"

"This isn't the first time you've done this, Taylor. Please, help her. I don't trust many people in Boston, but her, I do! She's hard and vindictive, but she's a good person."

"Tell me you understand!" I growled.

She scowled back at me and unholstered her own sidearm. "I _get it_. Now help her!"

I peered around the corner of the building one final time and after checking to make sure everything was clear, sprinted out, heading for the door. The dead Firefly had managed to wedge the thing open, not the smartest dying move, though it certainly made my job easier. Slipping through the opening was simple enough. The scattered dead bodies of both FEDRA and Fireflies just inside the entrance didn't surprise me. What did surprise me was the teenager kneeling next to Tess, while Tess herself had a hand pressed to her shoulder and a clicker at her feet. The rag in her hand was soaked through and there was blood dripping onto the tile at her knees. The girl had a medpack in her hand, though she didn't seem to have any idea what to do with it.

Not that it would help much at this point.

"Fuck," I muttered. Standing straight, I held my hands to the side as I walked into view of both of them. Tess lifted her eyes, to me, though she wasn't able to do much else. The girl fumbled at her side, grabbing for a gun and holding it in my direction, her hand shaking so much that I was worried she would end up dropping the thing and killing me by accident. "Easy, I'm a friend."

"Ar-are you a Firefly?" the girl asked.

"No," Tess said, her voice pained and far too soft. "Hey. Taylor, right? Emma's girlfriend. Long time no see."

"Tess. Looks like a bad day for you. Is the building secure? Emma's outside, I can call her in."

"Sweet girl. Don't want her to see me like this. Can't grip the gun tight enough; can't finish it myself. Help a girl out?"

I grimaced and walked forward, ignoring the kid entirely as her eyes flicked between me and Tess. Her gun had lowered though her hands were still shaking. "What happened, Tess?"

"Simple handoff. Supposed to be simple. Not simple."

I shut my eyes and clenched a fist. She was losing too much blood. At this rate I wouldn't have to do anything, she'd bleed out before she had to be worried about turning. "Ambush?"

"Bad timing. 10 minutes either way. Should've scouted better. Had infected on our tail. No time."

"Well…at least you got the FEDRA assholes…"

"Need to…" Tess trailed off and took a shaky breath. Her skin had paled to nearly chalk white in just the short time we had been talking. "Get Ellie to the Fireflies."

"I can take her back to the city," I said, crouching down. "I can do that much for you."

"They're all dead there," the kid whispered. I glanced at her for a second before focusing back on Tess who gave as much of a nod as she could while barely moving her head.

"Raid. Few got out. Not many. Ellie needs to…needs to get to the Fireflies."

I sighed and looked at the girl. She had finally dropped her hands to her side, her head hung low as well. Goddamn, she looked defeated.

Stupid motherfucking conscience. This was why Sophia left. "The only other group of Fireflies I know of are in Utah, Tess. Why is _that_ group in particular so important?"

Tess coughed, blood dribbling down her chin and a shudder ran through her body. Her shaky breath after that barely seemed to give her enough strength to continue speaking. "She's got…family with them…in Utah…I have a friend closer…in…Wyoming…Jackson…Tommy…ran with him…few years back…good man…Help…please…"

My eyes narrowed as I stared at the teenager. She was thin and wiry, like I had been back in the day. She didn't look like much, but when I had barged into the room, she had at least tried to cover her partner.

Fucking _conscience_.

"Emma and I are heading towards Wyoming as it is. We can take her as far as your friend at least. Might be able to go all the way to my friend in Salt Lake too depending on how things turn out."

Tess smiled, though I doubted she could see me anymore. Her eyes were too unfocused. "Thank…you…Taylor…protect…her…"

"I will. I promise."


	4. Exploration 03

**Exploration 03**

"What the hell!"

"We know, Madison," I said, sighing. I really couldn't be bothered to move at this point. Why was she _still_ shouting?

"Seriously, what the hell!?"

"We _know_ , Madison."

"Madison, I swear to fucking Scion, if you don't stop shouting I will punch you hard enough that you won't be able to breathe enough to _whimper_." Leave it to Sophia to threaten one of the only three people besides herself who weren't zombies.

"That person has _fungus_ growing out of her _head_!" Madison shrieked.

Sophia growled and stood up, stalking towards the diminutive brunette. I narrowed my eyes, staring first at the cracked skull of the mutated zombie thing, then at Madison, then back again. "Sophia, wait. Madison, take a deep breathe. Good, now another. Now a third. Now, tell me why you think those plated things are fungus?"

Emma was standing behind Sophia and me now, apparently trying to do her best to curl up into a ball while still standing straight up. It would have been amusing if zombies hadn't just tried to eat us. Madison was freaking out too, but at least she wasn't shouting anymore. Instead she was breathing heavily and had her shaking hand pointed firmly at the mutated thing lying on the ground.

"I've been on nature walks with my family," Madison said; her voice was shaky too. "Those plates are hardened fungal growths. I've seen them on trees. A few dead animals have growths like that too."

"That thing was very much not 'dead', Madison," Emma stated. Her voice was wavering too. Wonderful. Stuck on a dead world with mutant zombie fungus people and two of our people were freaking out. I loved this whole situation more and more every moment.

Fuck the Simurgh.

"No, I _missed_ that!" Madison hissed. "Why do you think I'm close to wetting myself? That _person_ had _fungus_ growing out of her _head_! Fungus that should only be growing out of _dead_ things! Fungus that was growing long enough to blind her! Fungus that is probably big enough that it's eaten most of her _brain_! Excuse me while I huddle in a corner away from the _fungus monster_!"

"They're not indestructible so cool your tits," Sophia grunted. She turned back to the mutated woman and poked at the corpse with her iron pole. "Hit them hard enough, they go down fine. I miss my crossbow. That would make this so much easier." She looked honestly wistful for a moment there. "So, nature geek, what the fuck are we looking at?"…and the moment was gone.

Madison's eyes widened to almost comical degrees. "How the hell am I supposed to know?"

I stood, shrugging. "Well you recognized the fungus. I can recognize bugs and maybe sterilize or disinfect water. I don't know anything about that thing there. Unless Emma has picked up some new skills besides fashion in the past two years, you're the closest thing we have to an expert. Congratulations."

"What?"

Sophia turned to me and glared. "What am I, just the dumb muscle?"

"You said it, not me," I grinned back at her. "In all seriousness though, I think there was a FEMA tent that way. I caught a glimpse of a reflection in one of the buildings as I was running away from the store front. Let's go and check it out."

"Maybe there'll be people there?" Emma said. She clutched her arm, squeezing hard enough that her knuckles were turning white. Sophia utterly ignored her as she waltzed past me in the direction I had indicated. Sighing, I stepped over to Emma and pried her hand off her arm.

"Emma, Emma look at me." Her gaze shifted from the corpse to me. Her hands shifted to grasp at my arms. I flinched back at the contact, and Emma dropped her focus to the ground, sniffling. I hadn't seen her look that vulnerable, that _sad_ since I had gone to summer camp nearly two years ago.

"I'm sorry." Her whisper was barely loud enough to hear.

"I wish I could believe you," I replied just as softly. Shaking my head, I said, "Emma, you're upset, I get that. But you need to pull it together enough to move. Can you at least walk behind me and Sophia?" She nodded, never lifting her eyes from the ground. "Good. We need to figure out what is going on and how to protect ourselves. Follow me, stick close." As I turned I saw Madison hovering behind me, her hands wringing together and her head constantly swiveling from side to side. "Madison, you good?"

"I am most definitely not. There's a woman with a fungus growing out of her head. I want to go home."

Emma shuddered, her hand tightening on my arm to the point that it started to hurt. "I don't think that's going to happen, Mads…"

"Taylor and Sophia will figure something out…" Madison murmured. I tore myself away from Emma and turned to walk after Sophia. Sometimes I hated being a good person. If I was as bad as Alec or even Bitch, I could've ignored the desperate note in Madison's voice or the way that Emma's hand had grabbed the back of my costume as she shuffled behind me. "They're capes. They'll find the answer…"

Unseen, I scowled. These two were _horrible people_. I should _not_ feel responsible for them. They should be _Sophia's_ problem. Sophia was their friend. Sophia was the Ward. Sophia was the teenage psychopath. Sophia was their best bet to survive in this dead world. I was an _Undersider_.

And yet, Sophia was the one nearly a block ahead prowling from shadow to shadow, completely ignoring Madison and Emma. Every so often she would glance back to me and motion towards one building or another before moving on.

How the hell had I become the babysitter? How the hell had I started to work with _Sophia Fucking Hess_?

Fuck the Simurgh. Fuck the Simurgh with the goddamn Empire State building.

* * *

"Nerd, what's this shit mean?"

Madison grunted as she walked past me, snatching the paper out of Sophia's hand. The FEMA tent didn't have any major supplies or people, but it at least had flyers and some notes left lying about. I had at least found a box of bandages, some duct tape, and a few scalpels, which was nice. They had all gone into the new sturdy backpack that Emma had found along with a single box of energy bars. It wasn't much but it was something at least.

"Cordyceps…Oh my god, this is _insane_ ," Madison mumbled.

I stood beside her glancing down at the paper. It had several different photos, what looked to be four different stages of the zombie mutation. "Shit, those clicking things get worse?"

"They called them bloaters apparently," Madison said, still reading. "Jesus, whatever you do, do _not_ let those things touch you. This says they can crush your skull. What kind of sick fuck decides that fast zombies aren't bad enough, but goes and gives them a fucking Brute rating too?!"

"They did _what_? These things can _crush our heads_?" Emma whimpered.

"Yeah whatever; having your neck torn out by Bitey is just as deadly. No shit, Nerd. What else does it say?"

"Seriously, Sophia?" I said, scowling at the other girl. "You're grumpy, fine, but deal with it because we all are. It's no reason to bite her head off for giving us a warning about the giant mutant fungus zombie things."

"That can throw spores."

"That can throw - _what_?" I whipped my head around to stare at Madison who had gone pale.

"They throw _spores_. That _burn_. Fuck! _Of course_ there would be spores. Oh crap, oh crappy, crap, crap!"

Sophia looked at me, pointed to Madison and held her hands in the air. I groaned and tapped Madison on the shoulder. Her eyes snapped towards me, her face, impossibly, even whiter than it was a minute ago. "Madison, use your words. Why is this such a bad thing? So we can't close to melee range, got it; we'll find a gun. That doesn't seem to be what has you worried though."

She bit her lip and took a few moments before responding. Finally after taking a shaky breath she waved an arm back towards the area we had just come from. "My parents always said that fungus was weird. It doesn't have sex to reproduce or drop seeds. It doesn't have the stamens and pistils of plants. It has _spores_. Generally spores need dark and wet areas to grow for _most_ fungus species. But if this one can grow _inside people_ …"

"Oh." I swallowed on a suddenly dry throat and stepped away from her towards the racks on the walls. "Everyone, start looking for gas masks. Madison, see what else that notice says. We need to know how far this thing spread, where it's safe to go without masks, anything about the other fungus zombies."

"Wait," Emma said, wrapping her arms around herself, "are you saying we're infected? That we're going to turn into those things? Just because we were breathing near them?!"

Sophia shook her head, even as she started to rummage through a box in the corner. "Probably just areas with lots of them for a long time. Not all of those zombies were as bad as the deaf one meaning not all of them were infected at once. We're probably fine. You two at least. Taylor and me, maybe not quite as fine, but I swear to god if I'm killed by fucking _fungus_ I will find Death itself and beat it to a pulp."

I looked over my shoulder at her frowning and cocking my head to the side. "I honestly can't tell if you're joking or not."

Sophia snorted meeting my gaze with a small smirk. "Neither can I, Taylor." Wow. How had things degenerated to the point where I commiserated with Sophia Hess? "Oh, jackpot! Pistol and ammo!"

And just like that, the camaraderie was gone.


	5. Determination 02

**Determination 02**

I tried to keep my eyes forward as the teenager burned a hole in my back. Well, _Emma's_ back. Maybe now that we had a tagalong I should see about getting Emma her own horse.

Nah. It was safer to keep Emma with me. Ellie seemed like a good kid, but if she couldn't keep up, that would be her problem. If Emma fell behind, that would be _my_ problem. Nothing was taking Emma away from me. Not when she was the only person I had left. Emma didn't get her own horse.

She couldn't even really ride one anyway.

"So…Why were you two going to Wyoming? You didn't say."

I shrugged off the kid's question. "We're investigating a rumor."

"A rumor? From across the country? What the hell kind of rumor would convince you to go wandering that far?"

"It doesn't matter."

Ellie frowned, her own horse picking up the pace to trot beside us. "It does. It would have to be something about the infected. Have they changed? How are they changing? Why _now_? Maybe that's why…" As she trailed off Emma poked my side. I glanced over my shoulder and she inclined her head towards the girl.

Sighing, I nodded. "It's not about the infected, Ellie. It's personal."

"What could _possibly_ be worth traveling thousands of miles through infected territory if it's _not_ about the zombies?" Ellie asked, her eyes wide and her hands clenched into white knuckled fists on the reins.

Damned inquisitive kids. "Well, there's always a few options. We could be going for revenge against someone who hurt us."

"No. I don't believe it; nobody is stupid enough to chase after revenge over those distances," she cut me off.

I blinked and turned to look fully at her, then nodded, a small smile cracking my lips. "Okay, good call, you're right, that's not why we're going. And trust me, some people are stupid enough; we used to know one. So what's the real reason you think we aren't after revenge?"

"I don't really know much about you two, but Marlene did talk about you a bit. You're the wandering tracker. You take almost any job except ones involving hurting kids and you mostly stay in the Northeast region."

Emma nodded. "That's a decent summary, but it doesn't answer Taylor's question."

Ellie shrugged. "It kinda does. You two don't care enough about people to get worked up enough for a cross-country revenge hike. Maybe if _you_ were dead I'd believe it of her, but you're not. And Taylor mentioned a friend in Salt Lake to Tess. So it's not like you are going out to get revenge on someone you call a friend."

"Depends on the type of 'friend,'" I muttered.

Emma chuckled. "She's smart."

"Not Lisa smart," I murmured. "Still, not bad, kid. We're looking for home. Let's just leave it at that, okay?"

Ellie nodded, falling silent. We traveled with the quiet surrounding us for a few minutes before Emma spoke up again. "So, what family do you have with the Fireflies, Ellie?"

The girl winced. She quickly schooled her expression back to neutral, but not fast enough that I hadn't caught it. Of course Tess had lied. Fantastic. We had human cargo that we had no idea why we were transporting and I couldn't even pawn her off on someone else because then my own damn conscience would haunt me until the day I died. Or Emma would mope and make me feel guilty as all hell. Equal odds which would make me cave first.

"A cousin. Last I have left."

"I'm sorry," Emma replied.

Did I tell Emma later tonight or did I keep it to myself? Probably better to keep it to myself. Emma still wasn't used to this world as much as she thought she was. She wouldn't want to believe that a kid could lie to us like that. I'd watch Ellie myself and if I needed to get her alone to find out the truth in a few days or a few weeks, then I would. I would -

"Ow." I glared over my shoulder at Emma. My girlfriend calmly put her arm back around my waist from where she had previously been pinching my side. Then she shifted her eyes towards Ellie. What the hell was - oh. Oh for fucks sake.

"Sorry to hear about your loss, Ellie."

"You're not a very emotive person are you, Taylor?" Ellie asked.

"Oh big word for a thirteen-year-old."

"I'm _fourteen_ thank you. And I read."

I lifted my eyebrows at that. "Really? What do you like? That's a legitimate question, I'm not mocking you. There's not many libraries around these days. We raid a few every once in a while for new material, but the QZs don't seem to care to maintain or restock their own. It's one of the reasons why I hate them so much."

Ellie shifted in her saddle. Her eyes dropped and she mumbled something.

"What was that?"

"I said I like _Savage Starlight_ okay?!"

" _Savage Starlight_?" I looked at Emma, frowning.

"Comic book," the redhead supplied smiling.

"Oooh." I shrugged. "Nothing wrong with liking comic books, kid. Hell, my mother used to read me Shakespeare for bedtime stories. You can imagine the looks I got from people when I said _that_ at school. Comics are perfectly normal by comparison."

"Shakespeare. To _bed_?" Ellie took a beat. Then she burst out laughing, nearly falling off her horse as she doubled over. "Oh my god, you are such a dork!"

"Uh huh. And proud of it!" I kicked Brutus' flanks urging him to a trot. We pulled just ahead of Ellie as the girl kept laughing on her own horse.

And, unseen, I blinked away the moisture in my eyes. One day, somehow, I'd see Alec and the others again.


End file.
